Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary School Students: 2002-03
J. Carl Setzer, Laurie Lewis, and Bernard Greene, National Center for Education StatisticsMarch 2005
Bible Literacy Report: What Do Americans Need to Know and What Do They Know?
Bible Literacy ProjectMay 2005
Restoring the Balance Between Academics and Civic Engagement in Public School
Eric OsbergBruce O. Boston, America Youth Policy Forum and Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development2005
State of the Charter Movement 2005: Trends, Issues and Indicators
Eric OsbergGregg Vanourek, Charter School Leadership Council May 2005
Scopes, part deux
The Kansas State Board of Education has just wrapped up its evolution trial. Proponents of "intelligent design" have pushed the state to present a "more critical" view of evolution in Kansas classrooms and to move away from the definition of science in the state standards as a search for "natural explanations," which they say represents an endorsement of naturalism and atheism.
Small jumps in the Big Apple?
Given Gadfly's many doubts about Mayor Michael Bloomberg's education efforts (see "A rush to judgment?"), we pondered how to present the news that proficiency scores for Big Apple fourth graders have jumped 10 percent this year (accompanied by a slight dip among eighth graders).
Graduation or bust?
Much has been said about the specious nature of official high school graduation rates promulgated by states, districts, and the feds (see here for Jay Greene's February 2005 report on the subject). The message is beginning to take hold.
D-U-H
The Christian Science Monitor reports a resurgence of interest in spelling in American classrooms, a subject which, according to author and spelling zealot Richard Gentry, was dealt a setback by whole-language instruction in the 1980s.
Tossing the terror tots
A new report from the Yale University Child Study Center (see here) finds that pre-Kindergarten students are being expelled from their programs at rates much higher than students in K-12 are expelled from school.
Whither tenure?
Chester E. Finn, Jr.California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is bent on ending teacher tenure as we know it. If legislators won't budge, he's gathered signatures to put it on the ballot and let voters decide. "If they don't do their job," quoth the Gubernator, "then we go to special election without any doubt."